The Koch Brothers and their fossil fuel industry allies are waging a multi-prong attack on clean energy and electric vehicles, meanwhile working to rebrand oil and gas as "innovative" and "sustainable" solutions.

Campaigns like the Energy Equality Coalition and many Americans for Prosperity efforts are targeting clean energy and transportation policies with deceptive and misleading talking points. Meanwhile, a new brand of pro-fossil messaging was reflected in the non-defunct Fueling U.S. Forward campaign run by a team of Koch affiliates and veteran Washington spin doctors. Like other polluter-funded PR efforts, these campaigns seek to present oil and gas as savior fuels without any mention of the well-known impacts of fossil fuel pollution on our air, water, health, and climate.

This DeSmog project seeks to expose the individuals, organizations and tactics behind these PR campaigns, which not only sing the one-sided praises of oil and gas, but also attack electric vehicles, consumer choice and the innovative clean energy technologies the public demands and deserves. Read More

The Koch brothers — Charles and David Koch — are the co-owners of Koch Industries, the largest privately-owned energy company in the United States, and the second-largest privately-held company in the country.

Americans for Prosperity was founded by David Koch and Richard Fink in 2003 and has grown into a powerful non-profit front group for the Koch network. The group's federal platform and state chapters consistently fight against renewable energy and clean transportation policies.

Charles Drevna is leading the Fueling U.S. Forward campaign as President and CEO, and was until recently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Energy Research and a board member of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is an industry-funded, not-for-profit organization focused on “energy analysis and free-market energy and environmental policy,” offering reports and analysis criticising plans to lower emissions and attacking renewable energy.

The American Energy Alliance (AEA) is the “advocacy arm” of the Institute for Energy Research, and describes itself as a “not-for-profit organization that engages in grassroots public policy advocacy and debate concerning energy and environmental policies.”

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry, representing over 600 corporate members “from the largest major oil company to the smallest of independents, come from all segments of the industry.”